The K Club, Co. Kildare, Ireland

The K Club located in the small Kildare village of Straffan was built by the French wine-producing Barton family in the 1830s and is one of Ireland’s most pristinely preserved 19-century houses.

Resembling a French château, the K Club has 134 notably spacious rooms, amazing public spaces from elegant day lounges and chic cocktail bars to a superb spa with its Natura Bliss products and a 16-metre pool. This luxury hotel, inspired by the magnificent Louveciennes Palace near Versailles, sits in some 550 acres of the lush Irish countryside and is famed for its two golf courses, which jostle with the best worldwide (the 2006 Ryder Cup was held here).

In and around the estate grounds, guests can enjoy garden walks and cycles, fishing, falconry, kayaking, clay pigeon shooting, air rifle shooting, horse riding, archery, tennis, whiskey tastings and a kids’ club. There are wine tastings and wine cellar tours as befitting the industry that funded the building of this fantastic place. We’ll drink to that.